Selling hard to find grocery items brings in the bucks

So many of the great products of years past are very difficult to find, if not extinct. Remember any of these?

• Moon Pies
• Jello No Bake Cheesecake
• Chef Boyardee Lasagna
• Freshen Up bubblegum
• Wonka Nerds
• Candy cigarettes
• Pixy sticks
• Cherry Mash
• Clark Bars
• Mary Janes
• Slo-Pokes
• Bottlecaps
  

Apparently all these items are still being made, they are just difficult to find. There is a company whose mission is to sell nostalgic candy and hard to find grocery items from yesteryear. Hometown Favorites was started in 1996, as a “source for hard to find favorites for transplanted northerners to warm sunny Florida.” The company now has over 2000 hard to find items, and they ship throughout the country. They will research any item you are missing, and have a discontinued list of items they have already researched online.

According to their website, “There are many reasons a product becomes scarce - lack of shelf space at your local grocer, not a big seller in your area, item is seasonal in nature, product is only produced sporadically making it hard for local grocers to stock on a regular basis. Most local grocers want to sell you new, Bigger, best - those items being promoted by big name manufacturers with the advertising muscle to consume the shelf space in your store. The products we carry may come from small manufacturers with limited distribution, or items that are very regional in nature (coffee syrup, abba-zaba bars). But we also carry some big names - Nabisco, Betty Crocker, Quaker - we just specialize in the flavors/brands that seem to never make their way to the shelves. All products have one thing in common - YOU'VE REQUESTED IT!”

This site is fantastic – the only thing they are missing is Fudge Jumbles! Man I’m craving those!

Making money selling wigs

Maggie Rothschild operates her business, Rothschild Worldwide Licensing, out of her home in Sherman Oaks, California. The company sells hundreds of thousands of novelty items to sports teams and retail stores per year. Items like blue colored wigs for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and other mascot toys.

For 24 years, Maggie ran a children’s clothing showroom. In 1999 she created the Millennium Bear, a stuffed animal that counted down the minutes to the year 2000. The toy sold well, but she realized this product couldn’t be manufactured again for another one thousand years, so she didn’t have high hopes for the future.

Then one day the LA Dodgers called her and asked her if she could design some novelty blue wigs to be sold in their retail shops. She didn’t think she was the woman for the job, as she hadn’t any experience with wearing or designing wigs. However, she started to dig through catalogs and contacted several designers. Soon she had all six hundred blue Dodgers wigs. The wigs sold out almost immediately. Then orders came in from other teams who wanted wigs in their team colors. These wigs are given out at games and are also sold by retailers. Maggie’s product line has also grown to include Rally Monkeys, plush toys and stadium cushions.

Her client list not only includes the Major League Baseball, but the NBA, the NHL, and the NCAA. Sales last year were over $1.5 million, and she expects sales this year to double. Currently she is working on a new product line as well – jumbo mascot puppet heads. Who knows – could replace the giant foam fingers worn at games.

Changing your life focus due to daughter's diagnosis

Before my daughter Sophia could talk I had heard babies can communicate using sign language. I went to a few classes on it and watched a public television show that taught several of the basic words babies use, like “more”, “milk”, “eat”, “help”, “all done”. The television show was called “Signing Time” and was started by a mom named Rachel Coleman. Rachel grew up from a musical family. Her grandmother was Alyce King, of the 60’s musical show The King Family Show. Her father was the musical director of the Sonny and Cher show, and Rachel too is a singer/songwriter. When Rachel’s daughter Leah was one year old, she noticed she didn’t jump when a CD was played very loudly. Then Rachel realized it was because Leah was deaf.
Suddenly Rachel felt music didn’t have a place in her life. Now her focus was Leah.

She and her husband Aaron learned sign language and taught it to their daughter. However, Leah was left out on the playground and at birthday parties because people couldn’t communicate with her. In order for Leah to feel included, Rachel decided to start teaching sign language at local preschools. Rachel’s sister Emilie was a theater graduate and thought if they were to make even a hundred DVDs of a fun show with sign language, Leah’s life would be changed for the better.

Rachel used her background in music to create a theme song, and together they all began working on producing the videos in 2001, incorporating the company Two Little Hands Productions. The video was released in 2002, and through their website orders came through. They were highlighted on the Today show a year later and were encouraged to create another DVD. Additionally they have a show on PBS called Signing Time! Not only have they made a lot of money (last year, company revenue was over $3 million), but they have also helped change the thinking of a generation of kids who are now growing up thinking that sign language is normal. In fact, studies have shown kids who learn sign language:

1. Read earlier
2. Are better adjusted
3. Have higher IQs

Supposedly the terrible twos are easier if your child knows sign language, because they can communicate better. If this is true, I can't even imagine what my child would have been like without learning some basic words. I think I would have had to call in Nanny 911.

How to retire early and live the life you dream of living

Until 1991, Billy Kaderli had a career as a manager of a stock brokerage house, and his wife Akaisha ran a restaurant. They were two ships passing in the night. Billy decided there was something wrong with their lifestyle and suggested they retire. They were only 38 at the time, and Akaisha’s first thoughts were “how will we survive? How will we live our lives?” Billy worked on a plan and Akaisha went along with it, they quit their jobs and took a nice six month vacation to a small island in the Caribbean, Nevis. Then they came back to the US and cruised around in an RV, ending up in Mesa, AZ. But they decided they wanted to travel internationally as much as they could while they were young, and use the RV later when they were older. So they went to Mexico for what was intended to be six months and ended up being four years. The couple is mobile because they got rid of most of their stuff, keeping in mind that what is important is each other and their health. So what exactly is the Kaderli’s secret to early retirement? Are they “loaded”?

A numbers guy, Billy calculated what his cost of working was, meaning the cost of dry cleaning, meals out, driving. Billy realized they really weren’t spending that much money on themselves – only about $25,000/year was what they needed to spend. After crunching the numbers, the Kaderlis sold everything and invested it in tax efficient equity funds like the S&P 500 index . The money generated from those investments is what they live on. The couple has traveled the world, living as locally as possible in each of their chosen destinations, where the cost of living is generally low. When they go somewhere, they stay a while to make the cost of the plane ticket pay off. Additionally, when they arrive at their destinations, they localize their health care plan. The Kaderlis are on a never ending vacation, where they relax, adventure, meet people they would have never met while sitting in their car driving to work or hanging out in their house in California. The couple has a fantastic website http://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/, which showcases where they are living on a particular day, what activities they are doing, and tells you how you too can make this lifestyle happen if you choose. They have also written a book, which they sell on their website. Fascinating.

Making a business doing what you love to do

I found a website the other day that I could literally spend hours on. What a cool find this is – Pose Prints. The site offers sort of a cartoon picture you can customize and make to look just like yourself or someone else. You can play with a bunch of different skin tones and accessories, then save your drawing and have it printed on stationery, cards or invitations.

The founders are a mother-daughter team, Denise and Jen Harland. Denise was a CPA with lots of business savvy, and Jen has always had a passion for stationery and for drawing. In fact, Jen designed her first character pose for her high school graduation announcements back in 1999. Her friends and family loved the invitations and many asked Jen to make invitations for their special events. This planted the idea for Jen to try to make a business out of her prints and present her invitations to the public. However, Jen forewent her true desire to attend art school in order to be practical, studying mass communications instead at UCLA.

After college, Jen spent four years in Manhattan working in Television advertising sales, but she had always known she enjoyed drawing the most, and wanted to be an entrepreneur. Her mom Denise liked the idea Pose Prints presented, and has found working with her daughter to build the business to be her most enjoyable endeavor so far. So far, Jen says the most difficult challenge starting the business has been getting the word out and finding new, cheap ways to market the company, as the company is self funded. I truly feel once word gets out people are going to go nuts for this product.

Dreading doing the laundry leads to Business Idea

The other night I was watching Keeping up with the Kardashians and Bruce Jenner told the youngest girl to do her chores and he would pay her I think $15. She “outsourced” her chores by hiring someone to do them for her for $5. This netted her $10 for sitting on her butt. Pretty clever. I hate doing chores too. Now I don’t have to. There’s a site called www.domystuff.com, which allows you to post the “tasks that clutter your life”, such as taking out the trash, walking your dog, cleaning the floors. Assistants bid to do your tasks. The steps are:

1. Post your errands on their website
2. Choose the bid duration for the specific task
3. Limit bidders by rating or location
4. People bid on the task
5. Review bids and pick who you want to work for you
6. Forward payment into Domystuff’s account, and Domystuff will hold onto the money until the job is completed to your satisfaction
7. Clarify details of the job with your newly hired assistant
8. Leave feedback.
   

There are no fees for posting or obtaining jobs, but you need to have a subscription in order to do so. There are free and paid subscription plans, depending on what you want to do. Founder Darren Berkovitz was sitting around with a coworker one day talking about how so many computer jobs were getting outsourced, he laughed about how he wanted to outsource a girlfriend. Then he got to thinking, I wish I could outsource my laundry and all the other jobs I hate doing. Hence, the website was launched in March 2007 by 24 year old Darren Berkovitz, three of his buddies and $100,000.

Overcoming drugs, homelessness and bad employees to become a multi-millionaire

Bob Williamson was told as a kid he’d never amount to anything. He was a drug addict on the streets after he graduated high school. He stayed in missions and was in jail several times. After nearly dying from a head on collision, he began reading the bible in the hospital and became a Christian. Then he met his wife. That was 37 years ago.

After recovering he went to work in the label room for Glidden paint. He worked his way up and within two years was managing special projects. In his extra time, Bob was a wildlife artist. He realized there wasn’t a good airbrush paint on the market so he spent a couple years developing one. He brought his airbrush paint to an art show and people were lined up to buy it. Within six months he had distributors nationwide for his products. The company, Wildlife Artist Supply, was founded in 1977 in Bob’s basement, then grew to a huge warehouse. The company offered several thousand supplies for artists. Eleven years later, Bob made a deal to take the company public, and the next day his controller resigned. Several other employees offered their resignations at the same time. Bob discovered the company was over a million dollars in debt and they were overdrawn at the bank. Bob spent the next two years trying to get the former employee to pay him back, but never recovered the money.

Bob’s sons were computer programmers and he had several other good programmers working for him, so he decided to change his focus. Since the company had developed some good warehousing software, Bob tried to sell it. He thought the software sales would come quickly to him like the paint sales did. However, he soon realized there was tough competition in this arena. He needed a niche. One of his reps sold systems to school lunchrooms and while going on a call with his rep, Bob discovered there was a huge need for distribution software in schools. He modified the software to work in schools, hired salespeople who couldn’t sell the software. Bob believed in the product so he decided to sell the software himself, took out a home equity loan to finance his new company, and put the rest on his credit cards. This was back in 1993, when they had just four employees. The software was modified to include hospitals, nursing homes, and universities. The software manages food inventories and sales. People can now buy food from vending machines from a prepaid credit card, parents can go online and see what their kids ate that day. The company has been growing rapidly in size. Today, Horizon Software has over $26 million in sales and 173 employees, and over 15,000 installations.

5 Step recipe for Success

It seems every Sunday I get a craving for a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. Of course that’s the day of the week they are closed. I know they are closed for religious reasons (the founder is a devout Baptist), but it also seems to be a good marketing technique, at least on me. Makes me crave it more when I can’t have it. I first experienced a Chick-fil-A sandwich while working on a consulting project in Salt Lake City about ten years ago. I went there every day for a year practically. Chick-Fil-A has over a thousand stores and $2.5 billion in sales annually. Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-Fil-A in 1967 in a mall in Atlanta. The company claims to be the first to offer a boneless chicken breast sandwich, and the first to sell chicken nuggets nationally. A large part of Truett’s business and belief system is giving back to others. Consequently, he established the WinShape foundation more than twenty years ago. The foundation operates several foster homes, offers college scholarships, and offers long term family care for boys and girls.
On Truett’s website, he offers five steps for success:

1. Climb with care and confidence. Don't overextend.


2. Create a Loyalty Effect. For employees, restaurant operators, and customers.


3. Never lose a customer. The most effective advertising doesn’t cost anything but a bit of kindness to your customers.


4. Put principles and people ahead of profits. Be part of the community and give back.


5. Closed on Sunday

“Nearly every moment of every day we have the opportunity to give something to someone else – our time, our love, our resources. I have always found more joy in giving when I did not expect anything in return.” Truett Cathy

Thriving in a down real estate market using creative marketing

Since the real estate market is down, people are coming up with creative new ways to make money in the declining industry. Marshall and Barbara Zucker are realtors who previously were brokering annual sales of $150 million, worth $4.5 million in commissions. However, the real estate market in Las Vegas has gone up 169% from 2006 to 2006, and 40% of all home sales there are foreclosed properties. In an effort to get people to buy, in February they purchased a 24 seat bus for $40,000 and called it the Foreclosure Express, offering tours of foreclosed homes. The free tour consists of viewing a dozen homes for ten minutes apiece. In return, viewers have to sign an exclusive representation agreement covering any property on the tour. The Zuckers hope to garner 15 to 20 new sales a month as a result of the tour.

Making money for charity by sharing your goal in a blog

My husband was watching PBS the other night and the next day told me about how he was moved by a show about the tragedies of climbing Mount Everest. Apparently he had done some blog searches from climbers making the trek and found a site http://www.alanarnette.com/. Alan Arnette is climbing Mt. Everest right now. It’s his third attempt, and he’s 51 years old. He hasn’t made it to the top yet, but he’s hoping this time he’ll be able to.

His website’s motto is “Memories are everything”. Alan’s mom has Alzheimer’s, so Alan is raising money for Alzheimer’s research through his site and his journey. My hubby is so emotional about the site he wants to donate toward the guy’s trip (it costs up to $100k to climb Mt. Everest, and there’s close to a 10% chance of death) so that he can realize his dream. The website doesn’t offer this, only a contribution towards Alzheimer’s research.

Alan says that he’s always lived within his means and he’s not rich by any stretch. He goes on to say “Yes, spending enough money to buy a really, really nice car is a choice we make. But the key is living a life that allows those choices to be available. I often hear people say that they wished they could do one thing or another. I believe you can, if you focus on making it happen. Money is the enabler, your choices throughout your life are the key.”

To chart this guy’s incredible journey, you can follow it online here.

Business idea from trying to get her child to read

When Margo Redfern’s mom was giving advice as to what it takes to run a successful business, “It really comes down to God and Oprah, and I’m going to contact both of them.” Margo started her company Flatten Me in August 2007. The product is a book that makes the child the star, featuring custom pictures and interjections of the child’s name. As a mother of four, Redfern was always looking for a way to get her children to read. Her husband shot some pictures of his daughter sucking on a gobstopper and turned it into a book. The child showed the book to everyone and took up reading. This inspired Redfern to start her homebased business creating custom books. She says she spent five times what she initially planned getting the company up and running – hiring graphics designers, creating her website, producing the book, getting PR in place so that you and I hear about her books. Looks like her Public Relations people are doing a fine job, Flatten Me hasn’t been in business for even a year, and they have had dozens of magazines and news journals review her product. Even celebrities like Marcia Gay Harden and Reese Witherspoon have her books. Did I mention this lady is a mother of FOUR???

Aggressive Marketing brings in $20 million after five years

I’ve said in the past I don’t have a pet, but I’m completely fascinated with how big an industry the pet business has become. I think Paris Hilton is partially responsible because she was always carrying that Chihuahua with her and ever since it seems pets are the “in” thing. Maybe I was just clueless before. Anyway, I just read about a company called FURminator, started in 2002, which sells a grooming tool to combat pet shedding. The husband and wife team had tried many products that claimed to reduce shedding, but as groomers, they were not satisfied with the products on the market. Together they came up with the FURminator, which apparently rids dogs and cats of up to 90% of their shedding. Additionally, they offer a shampoo and conditioner, dog treats and food supplements. Originally launched with professional pet groomers, then aggressively targeted veterinary offices, pet rescue shelters, trade shows, QVC and pet supply distributors. In 2006, sales were $10 million, last year they doubled to more than $20 million. I wonder if the product works on humans I seem to be shedding quite a bit since giving birth.

The importance of a Name

The LA Times talks about the skill of naming a movie, and how the title can make or break the profitability of the film. There’s a company called Rich in Meaning, which focuses on branding and generates names for movies, video games, television shows. As a frequent moviegoer, the title is often what gets me to the theater, or in many cases can keep me away. For example, even before certain movies tanked at the box office, I had no desire to go to these based on their names:

• Gigli (couldn’t pronounce it)
• Valkyrie (New Tom Cruise movie scheduled next year, most people can’t pronounce)
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash (never heard of Pluto Nash and really don’t care to hear about his adventures)
• The Hottie and the Nottie (what the hell is a nottie?)
• Ishtar (Sounds like a bad foreign film)
• Lions for Lambs
• Osmosis Jones
• Zathura

None of the above movies did well, with the exception of the yet to be released Valkyrie, though my intuition tells me that movie too is trouble. I'm sure there are many other reasons these films didn't do well, but it starts with the name.

Rich in Meaning has built a business on naming other businesses. Their client list is impressive. Wonder what they would think about Winning Startups for my website?

Using an Education degree to teach himself

When people ask me what my secret dream is, I say I want to have a pumpkin patch. Well, not just a pumpkin patch. A pumpkin patch like they have at Vala’s pumpkin Patch in Gretna, Nebraska. It’s a major attraction in the fall – they have bonfires, hay rack rides, hot dogs, just good family fun. The farm was started by Tim Vala, a city boy who got a degree in Education at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He didn’t know how to drive the first tractor he bought, nor did he know how to plant fruits or vegetables, but he taught himself and learned from his mistakes and revolutionized the farm industry in eastern Nebraska. The farm is 152 acres, on which a third of that has pumpkins planted. His wife, Jan, supported the family initially, as a school psychologist. She now works full time on the farm, with their kids and dozens of outside employees.

Smart to be flexible when developing Business Concept

There's no more heavenly snack than Smartfood popcorn. My sister used to ship it back to me as a present when she lived in Boston, and they didn't sell it yet where I was living. Now that it has been bought out by Frito-Lay, Smartfood is everywhere. Smartfood came about in 1985 when Ken Meyers and Andrew Martin were using it as a filler for some enclosable packages they were trying to market. However, the popcorn was better than the packages, so they decided to market the popcorn instead. They realized the popcorn sold in bags at that time didn't taste that great, so they made Smartfood with fresh cheese. According to Wikipedia, the partners sold Smartfood to Frito Lay four years later for an undisclosed amount of money, rumored to be around $14.5 million.

In with the old out with the new

We went to Beijing, China a few years ago and the entire city was under construction as they were preparing for the Olympics. With each torn down building goes the history of the city, as it is replaced with new modern architecture. So sad, I think. The city is starting to look like every other metropolitan city in the world. I’m beginning to get the same feeling about the Phoenix metropolitan area as well. Many of the great Southwestern restaurants at local resorts are changing their cuisine to become prime steak houses. The kitschy car wash I loved in Cave Creek has been transformed into a sleek new one. Even Rawhide Western Town has moved from Scottsdale to Chandler and will be replaced with housing. However, there is still one beautiful jewel left in Cave Creek, AZ. It’s called the Town Dump. They call themselves one of the world’s most unusual stores. It’s outdoor and items are laying around everywhere. They sell some really cool stuff like full sized armor, wooden legs, even false teeth in the past. You just never know what you’ll find there. The store was founded in 1977 by Madelyn Hines, who says the store reflects the individualistic nature of the town. I hope they stay open forever. My out of town guests seem to love that place. Who knows, someday soon it could be all we have left to reflect Cave Creek’s uniqueness as a city.

How to make money from Lice and Scabies

My daughter’s had eczema since she was born. One day her eczema got worse and the steroid crème her dermatologist stopped working, so I took her back to the derm. I hadn’t even gotten her out of her car seat when the doctor took one look at her and told me she had a classic case of scabies. My stomach turned with horror and I got all teary eyed. He assured me it wasn’t a big deal, kids get it all the time and I just needed to apply a prescription crème on her at night and wash it off in the morning. Oh, and sanitize all her linens, clothing, and soft cloth items in the house. My husband and I spent the next two days, twelve hours each day, doing fifteen loads of laundry on the sanitizing setting, baggaging all of the items she’d sat in, played with, etc, in the last month. Nightmare, to say the least. If I could have found someone to do this for me I would have. I see there is a company in Canada, Licesquad.com, that offers a service to rid your kid and your house of lice (not scabies, but the procedures for removal are somewhat similar – cleaning bed sheets, linens). They charge $55/hour for their services, and they even franchise. Will someone please start this business in my area, and include scabies treatment as well???

From 0 to Ten Million in a little more than a year

I’ve heard this story before but didn’t understand the details until I read about it this morning in Hybrid Moms magazine. Sheri Schmelzer’s daughter had a pair of Crocs, and she added some ornaments to the shoes, showed them to her husband, her hubby thought it was a genius idea. They took out a home equity loan and began buying things at craft stores and pasting them onto cufflinks, making the ornaments by hand in their basement. The Schmelzers launched a website in August 2005 for Jibbitz. Almost immediately they found success, receiving hundreds of orders a day. The company moved out of their basement in January 2006 and only six months later they grew so large they were forced to again relocate. Within just a year, over eight million Jibbitz were purchased worldwide. One day Sheri’s dad took Sheri’s kids to the local pool wearing a pair of Crocs with the attached Jibbitz. Low and behold, the founder of Crocs just happened to be at the pool and he handed the girl a business card. Her daughter ran home and gave the card to her mom Sheri. By December 2006, Crocs bought Jibbitz for $10 million, plus up to another $10 million in bonus. Not bad for a little over a year’s worth of work.

Making money over the Holidays

I’m shocked. I just read that Americans spend $8.5 billion on holiday lighting every year. While driving by someone’s house with a nice Christmas lights display one year, I saw it was professionally installed, so I took down the number and called to see how much it would be to have them deck out our house in lights for the holidays. Since I was calling in December that year, prices were astronomical – like over thousand bucks to have them light a few cactuses. Guess every sucker in Scottsdale had the same idea at the same time, driving up prices. Then I got to thinking, wouldn’t that be a phenomenal business idea? Just work two months out of the year, hire people to hang lights and take them down. Genius. Unfortunately someone else already thought of this idea. There’s a company called Brite Lites, which was founded in 1989, with the goal of supplying full service Christmas lighting. They offer design consultation, installation, removal and storage of your lights. By 1996, the company was installing over 300 homes with lights. A couple years later they started offering distributorships and now there are over 250 distributors nationwide. I see on their website they offer business opportunity packages for people to get started with their own Christmas lighting businesses.

Suri brings cupcakes to life

I remember driving down the streets of Chicago, wondering what the names of some of the streets meant. Many were named after people, who were these guys and what did they do to have a street named after them? A friend used to say all they had to do was follow one dream and do it well. They could suck at fifty things and just do one thing right, that’s all it takes to create a legacy. While the founders of Sprinkles Cupcakes don’t have a street named after them (yet), they follow a similar philosophy of doing one thing and doing it well. A new Sprinkles Cupcakes shop opened this week in Scottsdale. I haven’t tried the cupcakes, but I'm looking forward to checking it out, after all the hype I've heard about these things. If Oprah and Suri Cruise like them, they must be good, right? The founders are former investment bankers Charles and Candace Nelson. While visiting NYC, the couple had tried the famous Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. They saw how big the craze was there, but the trend hadn’t taken off yet in the rest of the country. Plus, they weren’t that impressed with Magnolia’s cupcakes and thought they could make a better product. The Nelsons spent two years figuring out the best cupcake recipe, hired a great architect and graphic design artist and opened their first shop in Beverly Hills in 2005. Their first day they ran out of cupcakes in three hours and people were literally banging on their doors for more. A second location was opened a year later in Newport Beach, then Dallas, Scottsdale, and fifteen more stores are currently in the works.

Cashing in on a down real estate market

Seems that now the real estate market has come to a screeching halt in Arizona, everybody and his brother has come up with a way to help you sell your home faster. The other day I was at the grocery store and my shopping cart had an advertisement for a service called Home Tenders of America (HTA). The concept is someone lives in your home while it's still on the market after you move out so the home appears "occupied", thus decreasing the risk of burglaries, and increasing the chances someone will want to buy your house. HTA professionally stages your house and sets you up with the hometender. The service is free to the person selling the house and there is a "nominal fee" for someone to tend your house - between $650 and $1150/month. I guess HTA gets that money. Their website says they have been around for 25 years. It's an interesting concept, but if I were the hometender and I loved the house I was tending and was able to live there cheaply, I don't think I would be motivated to help the homeowner sell their house.

Alternative becomes Mainstream

You know it's Comic Con week in San Diego when a) there's no available hotel rooms in the entire city and b) everywhere you go you see people walking around in Batman or Incredible Hulk Costumes. Comic Con is a convention for comics fans that started almost forty years ago in San Diego by a comic fanatic named Shelton Dorf. The first convention was held at the US Grant Hotel, had about 300 people, and featured writer Ray Bradbury as a guest speaker. Ten years ago there were 48,000 in attendance, and last year there were over 125,000 people at Comic Con. The event is now held at the San Diego Convention Center. Comic Con lasts four days, and in the past directors like Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses) and Kevin Smith (Clerks) have attended. Activities of the event include panels, seminars and workshops, movie screenings and previews, gaming, and a costume contest. Comic Com has become so big, other cities are joining in the fun - New York City now has one as well. If you're unable to attend, the event is now televised on cable TV.

Learning by listening to people

If you’ve been to Chicago in the last thirty years, chances are you have seen or visited a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant. I’ve personally been to dozens of them, and waited with bated breath for the Maggiano’s in Scottsdale to open a few years ago. The enterprise was founded by Rich Melman and his partner Jerry Orzoff. Rich was raised in Chicago and sold peanuts and ice cream on the beach when he was a kid. Rich went to college for a while and decided it wasn’t for him, so he dropped out, and unsuccessfully tried to convince his father to let him buy into the family business. Then Rich met Orzoff. Orzoff believed in Rich and together they raised $17,000 to start their first restaurant, RJ Grunts. This restaurant quickly became the hottest place in Chicago, so the pair decided to start other restaurant concepts. Orzoff passed away ten years into the business startup, but Rich continued and today Lettuce owns and operates 70 restaurants nationwide, employing over 5000 people. Rich shares his secrets for success on his website: “We're a very disciplined organization. People think of us as creative--and I do believe we possess creativity--but more importantly, we play good solid ball. Our costs are good. We surround ourselves with good people and we train them well...not a lot of fancy stuff, just the basics. And, we work very hard. We've had the ability to give people what they want almost before they know they want it. You can call it trendsetting. I prefer to call it the ability to listen to people."

Can't find what you like? Do it yourself!

Let’s face it: Americans love celebrities. We like our television and movies. We like People magazine and Perez Hilton. When Georgette Blau graduated college she moved to NYC. She searched for a tour that would take her past the great landmarks of her favorite movies and television shows. Couldn’t find one. So she started her own, called On Location Tours. She had just $3000 in savings, and on the weekends, she offered her tour to tourists, showing them places like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, the building from The Nanny, the police precinct from NYPD Blue. Initially she was just making $400/weekend. Then Georgette decided to hand out brochures at places tourists frequent, she also established a website, and got on the Today show. She quit her job in 2001 to work on her tour fulltime and started a tour based on the Sopranos, then another tour about Sex in the City. Today she has five fulltime employees, and several part timers, and is bringing in over a million a year.

Sometimes the writing's on the wall for success

Everywhere I look these days there is someone wearing a Life is Good t-shirt or hat. Am I crazy or do you see this too? Two brothers Bert and John Jacobs designed their first t-shirts in 1989. For five long years they went door to door selling the tees in college dorms and on the streets of Boston. They weren’t making a lot of money so they slept in their van and took showers “when they could”. I know, ewww! The brothers believed in their dream but they were discouraged. They didn’t realize it until five years into their business that the answer to their prayers was hanging on their wall – it was a picture drawn of a character they called Jake and a phrase “Life is Good”. They decided to print the picture on a t-shirt and made 48 of them, then sold them at a local street fair. They were sold out by noon, and at that point realized they had something good. America quickly embraced Jake and today these two bros are making bazillions.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again!

I love good BBQ. I thought to have a good recipe, though, you had to be from Kansas City. Not so, said Dave Anderson, the founder of Famous Dave’s!!! In fact, Dave is a Native American, a member of the Chippewa and Choctaw tribes. Dave started his first business at the age of 18 and failed. He then started his second business as a plant wholesaler and initially had success, then went bankrupt five years later. He picked himself up though, and earned a Master’s degree from Harvard (even though he didn’t have a bachelor’s degree). Famous Dave went on to start The Rainforest Café and found immediate success, but his passion was barbecue. He opened the first Famous Dave’s in a small town of 1800 people in Wisconsin, found immediate success as he served 8000 people a week. Where did all those people come from??? Dave believes his success is to due God’s intervention, as well as people giving him a second chance.

Excellent Customer Service brings Success

Laura Beulke credits the success of her company to planning and listening to her customer’s needs. She graduated from high school, then worked at Kinko’s as a desktop publisher. She taught herself graphic design and also worked as a production manager, but had entrepreneurial aspirations. Laura started her company, Vertical Printing and Graphics, out of her garage in 2002. She wanted to offer her clients marketing products that stood out, as well as offer them excellent customer service. A year after starting the company she moved it out of her home into her current location in Encinitas, CA. Vertical Printing now has customers throughout the US and throughout the world.

Using your home computer to make videos

My daughter loves Baby Einstein videos, specifically the Baby MacDonald one. Every time I watch it with her I think “I could have made this”! It’s pretty basic, but basic is exactly what little two year olds like. Julie Aigner Clark invested $18,000 and made the first video in her basement in Georgia about a decade ago. After editing it on her home computer, she brought the video to a local shop and reportedly the videos were flying off the shelves. Julie convinced the retailer to test market the videos in other stores. People went crazy for these videos. That first year the company grossed over a million bucks, two years later they brought in $10 million. By 2001, The Walt Disney Company acquired Baby Einstein and today these videos are sold in over thirty countries.

Quirky humor builds strong brand

My sister is very into fun soaps and bath products. She's how I first learned about Dirty Girl soaps. The makers, Blue Q, have done a fantastic job of packaging. The company was founded by two brothers in Boston seventeen years ago. One of the brothers sold his music merchandising business and the other quit his high tech engineering job to start a designer lighting company. However, they got sidetracked when they created a product called Flat Cat, a cardboard kitten they marketed as the perfect pet. They apparently sold millions of these, then started experimenting with selling other products like stationary, soap, etc. Currently the company is operating out of a renovated player piano factory, and they are expanding their product line constantly. Products are sold online as well as at Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, and other specialty boutiques.

Business Contact inspires Avid Reader

I’ve never been much of a literature reader. It’s difficult for me to concentrate my attention that long on one subject. Guess that’s why I found Cliffsnotes so helpful in high school. Thank God for the guy who founded that company! His name was Cliff Hillegass. He grew up in a small town in Nebraska and was determined to go to college so he financed his education with two paper routes and tended the cows. While a graduate student at the University of Nebraska, Cliff held a full time job as a college bookstore representative. During this job he made many contacts. One of them was a Canadian named Jack Cole, who owned a study guide called Cole’s Notes. Cole thought it would be a good idea for Cliff to start a similar product in the US. Cliff started working on the idea and started out with sixteen study guides on Shakespeare. Cliff sold the company in 1998 for buku-bucks.

Harvesting a cultural phenomenon

While money doesn't grow on trees, Edmund McIlhenny found a way to make money from garden and love of food. He was given some seeds from Mexico and set out to plant the seeds at his home in Avery Island, Louisiana, with a goal of creating his own hot sauce. Once the peppers were harvested he mashed them and added salt, and aged them for thirty days. He then added vinegar and aged it another thirty days, then strained it, corked it and sealed it. Friends and family found the sauce to be so likeable, Edmund quit his job as a banker to sell the sauce. The first year he made and sold 658 bottles of the sauce at $1 each. That was back in 1868. He obtained a patent two years later and sold the sauce throughout the US and England. Five generations and 140 years later, the sauce is made the same way except the aging process takes three years. The product, Tabasco, is sold worldwide and has become a cultural phenomenon.

Billboard advertising brings in the Buck$

Here in Arizona, we hear a bit about a man named Arturo Moreno, mainly because he’s one of a handful of billionaires in the state. A Vietnam vet, Moreno is of Mexican descent, a native of Tucson and the oldest of eleven kids. He became the first in his family to earn a degree, having graduated in marketing from the University of Arizona in 1973. He worked for Gannett advertising for seven years after graduating. Eventually he settled in Phoenix, AZ, and partnered with advertising ace William Levine to build a company called Outdoor Systems, a billboard advertising company. Upon becoming CEO, the company’s profits went from $500,000 to $90 million in less than ten years. The company became publicly traded and in 1999 Moreno sold the company for over $8 billion. Moreno is a huge family man too. Oh, an he’s also now an owner of the Anaheim Angels baseball team.

Immigrants bring quality and craftsmanship to plumbing industry

In a recent post I mentioned I used to be an SAP software consultant. While I was camped out on a project in hog country Illinois, other people within my company were on another project in Kohler, Wisconsin. I had always heard about how the other consultants were in the lap of luxury on the Kohler project, but didn’t understand how nice they had it until my husband and I visited their golf course Black Wolf Run several years later. The Kohler company has a nice history as well. It was started over a century ago when Austrian immigrant John Kohler purchased the Sheboygan Union Iron and Steel foundry. The turning point for the company happened ten years later, when Kohler came upon an idea to enamel a horse trough, making their first bathtub. Many of Kohler’s early employees were immigrants who needed housing. They were driven to be successful in their new country, and brought to Kohler their European craftsmanship. In the early 1900’s these immigrants used to stay on the Kohler premises in a place called the American Club. Today this facility operates as the only 5 star resort in the Midwest. Kohler has spent the last one hundred plus years on the cutting edge of plumbing fixtures. It is one of the largest and oldest privately held companies in the US.

Michael Jackson trial changes artist's focus

I gotta admit I have a fascination with pop culture, specifically with celebrities doing “bad” stuff. Last year I watched TV nonstop to see Paris Hilton go to jail, Mel Gibson get picked up for DUI, Britney Spears go crazy. At some point I looked back and realized I’m the sick pup because I’m entertained by this crap. The other night I was watching an “educational” show – CNN news – and saw a blurb about an artist named Rachel Schmeidler who has a business designing screenprint art from celebrity mug shots. Rachel has been an artist since she was a small child and received a degree from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art. She got the idea to focus her craft on celebrity mug shots while working with journalists on the Michael Jackson trial in 2005. According to her website: "The idea came to her to create this series to demonstrate how much importance our society places on the cult of celebrity and how we are all a part of the machine that feeds the illusion." Most of the artwork is around $800, apparently. I haven’t yet been able to find out how many have been sold but it looks like Rachel has had several exhibits and is getting some good press .Wouldn’t you like to have an Andy Warhol type mugshot of Lindsay Lohan hanging in your living room?

Filling a niche business in publishing

In college I had an internship with a company in Lincoln, Nebraska called Peed Corporation, later renamed to Sandhills Publishing. I worked on a newspaper called Controller, which was an advertising publication distributed at Flight Based Operators (FBOs). Basically, the publication advertised used planes people had for sale. Quite a niche business. The founders Tom and Rhonda Peed founded the company in an old blacksmith shop in Iowa thirty years ago. Their first publication was a printing of 20,000 issues of Machinery Trader, a publication that lists large pieces of equipment for sale such as forklifts and bulldozers. They didn’t have mailing equipment at the time, so each of the seven employees labeled the copies by hand and took them to the post office in a pickup truck. Circulation increased and they added three other papers – Controller, Truck paper, and Processor in 1985. That is the year they moved to the Lincoln office. They are located on a 68 acre campus and now have another office here in Scottsdale, AZ. They have added several other publications as well.

The Snowball Effect of the Internet

I bought an easel from someone on craigslist the other day. Very easy and I didn't have to pay any commission or anything, plus I met a nice lady. While the founder of craigslist, Craig Newmark, was working at Charles Schwab in 1995, he started craigslist as an email list for friends about what was going on in San Francisco. Craig worked on his side project during his spare time out of his living room for four years, until he decided to quit his job and dedicate himself full time to craigslist. Today, Craigslist contains classifieds for hundreds of cities throughout the world. See what a little email list and a few years can do? Today there are over 10 BILLION pageviews per month (whew! Winningstartups.com has a long way to go!) Ebay acquired 25% of craigslist in 2004, and they make money by charging for job ads.

Cheese company masters marketing

My daughter practically lives on string cheese sticks. She tends to like the Sargento brand the best (yes, she’s become quite the connoisseur) so I thought it would be fun to research them. Turns out they are a family owned and operated company established over fifty years ago. While cheese itself is a centuries old product, Sargento has found success through innovative marketing techniques. During the fifty years they’ve been around, they were the first to vacuum package cheese to preserve freshness, the first to market shredded cheese, the first to introduce peg marketing of products in the dairy case of grocery stores, and the first to introduce ziplock packaging in the cheese market. Man, where would the world be without Sargento??? Today the company employs over 1300 people in their Wisconsin facilities.